Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Great Trip with the exception of the flight home

I just got home from a great trip to Colorado to see my parents and sister who lives in Denver. We happened to be there during the World Series and were on hand to see some of the Rockies craziness. Too bad we lost but it was a great season for them anyway. As a football fan, it was harder to watch the Broncos lose to Greenbay on Monday in overtime!

Good things: My dad as well as the beloved father of growing up friends both look wonderful! My dad has his new pace maker, but is still connected to a "wound vac" that is vacuuming out the infection from the old infected incision sight. They are thinking about another week to two of that but at least he is home, looks great and can make his daily breakfast of tomato salad in his own kitchen. My friend's father who is battling leukemia was at church and looked wonderful as well. It was great to be home and in person see people I love look good despite their health issues. (By the way, my mother is a goddess who served my dad so sweetly the whole time we were there, disinfecting every surface, giving him his antibiotics every 8 hours--which is about a 20 minute process in that she has to inject them directly to the port in his arm, making "immunity building" meals, helping him take a bath, etc.)

On a more light-hearted side, good news for all Boulderites: The Gondolier now offers their All-you-can-eat spaghetti all the time! So no more need to plan your trips there for Tuesday and Wednesday nights. They have moved to 16th and Pearl. We ate there twice.

Not so good thing: I purchased Colorado Rockies t-shirts and baseball hats on Saturday and paid premium prices for them. On Monday, after they lost the World Series, all Rockies memorabilia was 1/2 price!

Weird Thing: On the way home, just as our flight was leveling out, a lady on our flight started feeling sick. My kids and I were on the 2nd to last row in the airplane and witnessed as they brought her back to the last row to help her (right behind us.) She started have heart issues and they announced on the speaker that they needed a doctor. A nurse and EMT were on the flight and they managed her the rest of the way, taking her pulse, giving her oxygen, etc. It was considered a medical emergency and our flight was prioritied into SLC. So, for a flight that is normally a little over an hour, we flew from Denver to SLC in 35 minutes! They didn't even serve the drinks or snacks. I don't know if it was real medical issue or just a panic attack but the lady went from hollering out, to loud screaming, sobbing, to going into a quiet daze, to hollering out, "I just want to go home!" to sobbing, to hollering out, "Where is my shoe?" etc. the whole time. Again, we were the only ones on the flight with little kids and we were directly in front of her! You should have seen my kid's worried faces. Once we landed, EMT's wheel chaired her off the flight as she covered her face saying, "I'm so embarrassed. I am so embarrassed." Needless to say, it was good to land and get off that plane. It took me a while after we landed to calm my kids down and explain that everything was alright. Last we saw of her, she was talking to the paramedics and looked good.

So, all in all a great trip if not just a few days too short. Now, it is back to the craziness with Halloween parties, parades, and trick or treating tomorrow night. The weather forecast looks good, so it should be a great Halloween.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's a scary thing to happen on your flight. It could have been much worse. I'm glad your dad is doing well and that your trip was nice.

love.boxes said...

It's amazing how much they can speed up those planes when they want to. We sat on the tarmac on my flight from NYC for an hour, but they made up the hour in flight by going faster.

I'm so glad to hear that your dad and your friend are doing much better. I hope they will both make a full recovery soon.

Gabriela said...

Ha ha-thanks for reminding me of the Gondolier-I used to go there during track season. I'll have to take my kids there next time we visit.

I'm glad you dad is doing ok!

Weird flight for sure! Glad you made it home. :)

jo said...

wow! sounds like a trip with many great stories. that's when you know it's been a great trip.